For Baelfire
by AnnCarter
Summary: Rumple takes his revenge. Set somewhere around 3x18 "Bleeding Through".


_All rights for Once Upon A Time are ABC's (and consequently Disney's). I own nothing._

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"H… how?" She managed, staring at him with wide green eyes. He could feel the horror coming from her and smiled to himself in pleasure.

"You see, dearie," He said, leisurely walking around her, "Your only advantage over me was Baelfire. Two consciousness in one head is far too much to be able to think clearly. But now…" He stopped in front of her, his brown eyes finding her terrified green ones. "Now I'm back. And your little game is over."

"Impossible!" She spat. "I have your dagger! I _own_ you!"

"You have _a_ dagger, certainly." He flashed her a frozen smile and plucked the dagger out of her hand. "Did you really think you could outsmart me? The Dark One? Did you really think _you_ could control _me_?"

"But, but... but it can't be." She tried to move, but frozen as she was, she couldn't so much as blink without his permission.

He gave her another frozen smile as he threw the dagger away. "You want to know why I picked Regina, Zelena?" He leaned closer, lowering his voice, "I picked Regina because she's always been better than you. She lost more than you could ever have, so she felt more than you could possibly understand. That will _always_ make her the better witch, even if you're stronger."

"You're lying!" She growled, attempting to bite him. She still couldn't move an inch, and he could tell how much it frustrated her.

He laughed. "What was it you told me about helplessness?" He asked, pulling back and resuming his walk around her. "About frustration? I'll give you that, you're quite right; it _is_ gratifying to watch you like that. And you're going to stay like that for a very, very long time. You see, you've taken away my son, and that…" His voice dropped a notch, "Was a very, very big mistake."

"How did you get the dagger?!"

He smiled, a frozen smile that send chills down her spine. "Follow the lady," He replied, pulling the real dagger out of a hidden pocket in his coat. Turning it over and over with his fingers, he added, "You see, my father didn't give me much. But he gave me this. I thought it was rather fitting to avenge my son with it."

"That doesn't explain anything!" She panted, fear and rage fighting for control within her. He could tell her attempts to fight him were weakening her.

"I'm not here to provide explanations, dearie." He stopped in front of her and waved his hand. She was immediately thrust back until she hit the wall. Leisurely, he made his way to her, stopping only when his face was inches from hers and his dagger was held against her throat. "I'm here to make you pay," He whispered, his voice once again frozen.

"Rumple, please…" Her voice turned softer as she tried a new approach. "Remember how good a student I was? How much you loved me?"

"I never loved you, Zelena," He said, giving her a frozen smile. "I needed your magic. That's all. But then you did something. What was it, again?" He pulled back slightly, mock-frowning at her, "Oh, that's right. You killed my son." He hissed those four words, a fresh wave of fury coursing through his veins. "And now I'm going to kill you. Except your death is going to take a very long time. And you're going to suffer through every… single… second of it."

He took a step back and dropped the dagger back into his pocket. "I've spent quite a while locked up in that cell," He said, looking at her appraisingly, "And I've had quite a few interesting punishments for you. But you see, I want you to suffer the way I did. The way I _do_ , because of you. You've taken my son, so I'm going to take the only thing you still have." With that, he leaned forward and tore the pendant away from her.

Her eyes widened slightly. She knew she was truly and completely powerless without her magic. "My magic?" She spat. "You think taking my magic will make me suffer?"

"Oh, not at all, dearie." He threw the crystal up and caught it with his other hand, watching – in delight – as her eyes followed it. "That's not what I'm going to take from you. What I'm going to take," He added, his voice lower, as he moved back closer to her, "Is your revenge."

With that, he closed his fist around the crystal, crushing it into dust. She screamed in pain, her body going rigid despite his freezing magic. Of course, he'd expected that; the crystal was practically a part of her, and her body responded the way it would respond to any loss. He smiled at the sight of her pain. She was already suffering, and he'd barely even started.

"Now then." He cleaned his hand and then waved in front of her. Luckily, torture was something he was an expert in. "You think your mother would've kept you if she could marry that prince?" He chuckled, conjuring the images he knew haunted Zelena. Her eyes went glassy as she found herself stuck in the story he was weaving for her. "I knew Cora. Cora would have been ashamed of you. If she could see you, she'd have denied being your mother."

Zelena's eyes widened in horror as she watched the scenes he created for her inside her head, seeing Cora rejecting her over and over, as a baby and as an adult and everything in between. She couldn't help but watch as he showed her how things would have looked like if Cora had married Leopold, showing her mother abandoning her all the same, or worse, killing her. He didn't care if it was true. It didn't matter. What mattered was that she suffered.

But that wasn't enough. Even though he could tell it was hurting her, showing her what could have been wasn't enough to crush her entirely. It wasn't enough to break her like Bae's death broke his heart. But he knew what would.

Slowly, the scenes she was watching changed. Now, he showed her Cora's love for Regina. Over and over, in dozens of scenes, some real and some from his imagination, he forced her to watch just how deeply her mother, who abandoned her, cared for her other daughter. He brought back every memory he had from them and used each and every one to make it as real as he could, real enough to make her believe that the visions she was seeing were the real world. He loosened the invisible ties around her body and smiled in delight when her body started shaking and tears slowly ran down her cheeks.

"Please… mother…" She whispered, and he knew she was his.

"She never loved you, Zelena," He whispered in her ear, taking pleasure in how deeply she was suffering. "She never would have loved you. Even if you could go back and change it, she'd never have taken you as her daughter. You were never meant to happen. You were a mistake. One she regretted her entire life. She chose Regina for the same reason I did. You were nothing. But Regina was destined for greatness."

"Please…" She managed, her voice shaky. She was still deep within the visions, but he knew she was talking to him now. "Please…"

He laughed again. "It will end when I want it to end, and not a second before," He said, his voice frozen. "As far as I'm concerned, you deserve to be kept like that forever. Your only solace is that you don't deserve to live. So I _will_ end it. I'll end it after you've given up on dying. Once you stop wishing for death, once you realise that even death can't save you… then you will die. Not a moment before."

Slowly, he turned around and walked away, leaving her held against the wall, stuck in her own fears and nightmares. The spell no longer needed him; he'd given it everything he could. Now it was drawing ideas from her own memories and fears, from her own hope for vengeance. He knew that in time there will be no more new scenes to create for her, but for the time being, there were still plenty, and he intended to force her to go through every single one of them. He'd meant his words. She'll only die once she gives up on escaping his revenge.

"I'll see you later, puppet," He hissed coldly before stepping out of the cellar and locking it behind him. He didn't care how long it took – he _would_ make her suffer for his son. He'd made a promise. And he was going to keep it, even if that would be the last thing he ever did.

"This is for you, Bae," He whispered, his voice softer and filled with tears, now resting his palm against the door. "She will suffer, Bae. I _will_ avenge your death. I promise, son."


End file.
